Man’s Way or God’s by C. M. S.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Mar 3, 1910

Man’s Way or God’s

By C. M. S.

The ways of God as revealed in the Word of God are being much criticized to-day, and men are setting up their own way in opposition to his. It is certain that there is a vast difference between the purely human way and the way of him who is from everlasting to everlasting. All men are transients in this world. They were not here yesterday; they are here to-day; and to-morrow they are but a fading memory. But “from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.”

So while transient man makes for himself a way which he may judge to be a right way, God, who sits in the heavens and views eternity, sees man’s way as the crooked, piecemeal way that it is.

For that reason the Lord speaks to man in these words: “Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return unto Jehovah, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith Jehovah. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.” Isa. 55: 7-9. That there is no security, no safety, in the ways of men is shown by the fact that they are not only at variance with God’s ways, but they “are at variance with one another. The Lord says of them that they are not equal.” Again he declares that “there is a way that seemeth right unto a man; but the end thereof are the ways of death.” Man can not see the end of the way he marks out for himself, though he may think it is the only way there is, and that he can see the end with perfect clearness; but God, seeing the end from the beginning, sees Death standing with open arms at the end of the way which so many men and women choose for themselves with perfect confidence. It is no wonder, then, that the Lord entreats men to turn from their evil ways. “I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord Jehovah: wherefore turn yourselves, and live.” Eze. 18: 32.

From these scriptures it is evident that there is no safety or salvation in the ways of man. Adam and Eve chose a way for themselves which was in opposition to the way of God. We have seen the result of that. On the plain of Shinar a human way to heaven was being built when the Lord touched the tower of their way and the tongue of their speech, and shattered them both, and scattered the builders. His chosen nation would not have him to rule over them, but chose their own way, and got it; and at the end of that way of their own choosing stood the death of their nation. God saw it, but they could not see, nor would they heed his warnings. When the Desire of nations came to Israel and stood in the temple, whose every service predicted and prefigured him, Israel was still busy with her own way. That way led to the crucifixion of her Lord, to the destruction of her temple and city, and to her own scattering among the nations that hated her.

Then a great portion of the church established by the Master himself and led and brooded over by the Comforter, wearied of the way and chose its own way, turning aside from the glorious light of the gospel to follow hard after the smoking flambeau of heathenism into a darkness that has cursed the world for hundreds of years, teaching image-worship and a spurious sabbath, trampling under its feet the law of the Eternal, and in the end condemning to death those who shall faithfully adhere to the gospel and the way of Christ. That is the climax of its career. Israel’s career was closed when she decreed the death of Christ. The destiny of that apostate power will have closed in reality, when it decrees the death of the followers of Christ. Christians may go down under the blows of that decree; but they will go down to rise again triumphant. But that power will seal its own destiny in the signing of that decree. To that terrible end will lead the choosing of its own way and its trampling upon God’s way.

Men to-day are choosing a fatal way as truly as ever did Israel of old. Men choose to be rich, throw their whole soul into that purpose, even bartering their soul to accomplish their end. Death stands at the end of the way. The young man spurns the advice of parents, determined to “see something of the world,” and too often refuses to turn from that way. Linking his ambitions and desires with the world and its ways, he goes down bound to it to the last. The young woman, wise beyond her years, and knowing more of the world than the parents who brought her into it, spurns counsel, chooses her own desires for a guide, and finds, mayhap, when too late, that she has chosen foolishness, and must reap the fruit of it. O the many bitter cries that follow the sun around the world, coming from the lips and hearts of those who have found out that the grain we reap comes always true to the seed we sow—who have found out that the way of their own choice, which looked so beautiful in the dawn, has led them into the quicksands of death when night came down over the world! There is a better way. It is the way of God—the way of life. His ways are ways of pleasantness, and all his paths end in the garden of peace. He sees the way from its beginning to its end. It is better to let him do the choosing; for in the path of his way there is no disappointment, no sorrow, no death.

C. M. S.